(#15) / Album: “All Things Bright and Beautiful” / by Owl City / (Music)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

Album: “All Things Bright and Beautiful” / by Owl City

ASIN: B004T5IW0C / Universal Republic Records

44 minutes / $6.99 (Amazon)

2011

Body of Content

Summary: Owl City returns for their third release – featuring the following songs in title order: “The Real World”, “Deer In The Headlights”, “Angels”, “Dreams Don’t Turn To Dust”, “Honey And The Bee”, “Kamikaze”, “January 28, 1986”, “Galaxies”, “Hospital Flowers”, “Alligator Sky”, “The Yacht Club”, “Plant Life”, and “Alligator Sky (No Rap Version)” (MOG, 2011a).  “Alligator Sky” represents the album’s first release – with the song featuring guest rapper Shawn Chrystopher and the album debuting in June of this year.  Owl City’s signature sound is again evident – with a heavy, synth-orchestrated collection of songs – that include catchy melodies and clear, tenor vocals from Adam Young.       

Critique: Young’s lyrics have subtlety – often ironic or pun-driven aspects to them.  But overall, the words in his songs have a transparent and positive connotation to them.  Young does not write humorous lyrics as much as words that hit directly but light-heartedly.  The unique thing about the lyrics is that they fit seamlessly with the music.  Both instrumentation and poetic musings are light and optimistic in tone.  Often, love is reoccurring theme.

Consider the lyrics to the chorus of “The Honey And The Bee”:

            “If the green left the grass on the other side /

            I would make like a tree and leave /

            But if I reached for your hand, would your eyes get wide?

            Who knew the other side could be so green?” (Metrolyrics, 2011b)

Young can even turn a song involving a horrific car accident and erratic ambulance ride into a light-hearted occasion, as he does in the song “Hospital Flowers”:

            “A high-speed collision gave a new sense of sight to me /

            And now my vision can render the scene /

            A blurry image of wreckage and roadside debris /

            Happiness returned to me through a grave emergency” (Metrolyrics, 2011a)

Owl City is music for a certain mood – in that it might take a certain mood to like it – or even that it might create a certain mood in the listener after hearing to it.  The lyrics and subtle compositional craft are affective – almost nostalgic – for something many of us now miss or downright lack – innocence.  

Teaser: “The songwriter behind the hit ‘Fireflies’ has a new album out!”

Information about the Author: Owl City is the creation of Adam Young – a pop composer from Minnesota.  Young – while living in his parents’ basement, working a day job for Cola-Cola – started Owl City in 2007.  Young is a one-person band – literally – using digital recording and computer engineering techniques for both composition and performance venues.  Penning his songs mostly on keyboards, Young uploaded new compositions to MySpace – and actually developed a following – leading to a contract with Universal Republic (MOG, 2011b).  

On occasion, Owl City invites guest vocalists – including Matt Thiessen of Relient K fame and solo artist Breanne Duren.  Live performances now often feature a slightly larger set – with the tour musicians including a drummer, violinist, cellist, guitarist, and supplemental keyboard player (Wikipedia, 2011).   

Owl City’s has released one EP – “Of June” (2007) – along with three studio albums – “Maybe I’m Dreaming” (2008), “Ocean Eyes” (2009), and “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (2011) (Wikipedia, 2011).

In one interview, the singer-songwriter relates, “I’ve never really had anything I wanted to say, really, to anybody – but there has always been a mood that I wanted to convey via sound – which is optimism” (Owl City, 2011).  On his sudden rise to fame and opportunity, Young ponders, “Music became a fan of me [first]… and then I started to make it, and I loved it [back]” (Owl City, 2011).      

Supplemental Material

Genre: Pop / Electronica

Curriculum Ties: Music – multi-track recording techniques / History – excerpt from Reagan speech regarding the Challenger tragedy  

Booktalking Ideas: 1) How does a store retailer for Cola-Cola become a pop sensation? 2) Did you know that lead singer Matt Thiessen of Relient K and Adam Young of Owl City are good friends?   

Reading Level: Heavy interest on Owl City’s MySpace account helps shows the strong teen support behind this young songwriter’s craft.  The same holds true – looking at concert venues.  Owl City probably best interests teens in grades 7 through 10.  

Challenge Issues and Defense: The music is not squeaky clean – one song “Deer in the Headlights” references rejection and accusations of stalking – but overall, the songwriter writes clever but simply pop lyrics and melodies – doubtful that any parent or group would object to his content.  

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: I like the background story of Adam Young – and I have listened to each of his album – enjoying the most-recent release the most.   

Last Thoughts

References:

Metrolyrics. (2011a). Hospital flowers [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://www.metrolyrics.com/hospital-flowers-lyrics-owl-city.html

Metrolyrics. (2011b). The honey and the bee lyrics [Webpage]. Retrieved from

            http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-honey-and-the-bee-lyrics-owl-city.html

MOG. (2011a). All things bright and beautiful [Webpage]. Retrieved from

            https://mog.com/albums/mn54612621/owl-city/all-things-bright-and-beautiful  

MOG. (2011b). Owl City [Webpage]. Retrieved from https://mog.com/artists/bio/mn597709/

owl-city

Owl City (2011). Owl City – Owl City road stories[Video]. Retrieved from

http://owlcitymusic.com/videos/view/4

Wikipedia. (2011). Owl City [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_City

Listening to (Music):

Artist – Ayleron  / Album – various songs/playlists